I'll Hold Her Forever
by Kyoku.x
Summary: She was my everything…and worst of all…she didn’t even know it. {{ InuKag, ONESHOT }}


**Title: **I'll Hold Her Forever

**Summary:** She was my everything…and worst of all…she didn't even know it. {{ Inu/Kag, ONESHOT }}

**Disclaimer: **Let's see…do I own Inu-yasha? …ano…HAI!? lawyers attack I mean…no! of COURSE not…why would ANYONE _EVER_ think such a horrid thing? curses inventor of copyrights under breath

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I stared at the corrupt, misshapen man—no…—the corrupt, misshapen _beast_ before me. How was it that such evil could infest one soul with such a concentrated, toxic hate and malevolence? I was wounded and bleeding freely. I knew I wasn't going to make it. I could hear Sango and Kirra take off once more in an attempt to help me, but I knew that in the end it would boil down to just me and him—me and Naraku.

Neither of us would walk away from that battle alive, I slowly came to realize—myself because I was too beaten and broken by the battle, he because I could not allow him to live on. I hefted the Tetsusaiga. It was growing heavy, but not because of my own fang. I was getting weaker by the moment. I heard Kirra roar in pain as Naraku stabbed her through with a spike of bubbling miasma. I could smell death on the fire cat and trembled with anger as I began to smell Sango's tears of hate and anguish. She had already lost Miroku—early on in the battle he had been destroyed by the spinning black vortex that his palm had become, no longer able to be contained by the rosary, while protecting her from the onslaught of demons at Naraku's side—and I feared that Kirra would be too much for her to handle.

Naraku turned his eyes towards me for a moment and then glanced towards my right. I dared a sidelong look in the same direction: Kagome. She was wounded, badly. He had stabbed her with a long vine of miasma while I had not been paying attention. When I saw the pain in her face and the gaping hole in her blouse over her heart I cursed myself. She fell from the pile of rocks she had been standing on, shooting her purifying arrows that barely grazed the monster's thick hide. I heard Naraku chuckle and felt fury rise in me as he moved forward to claim his prize: the completed Shikon no Tama.

After that, I was never be able to remember or describe what came over me, but it was not my demon blood, for that I know. It could have been the sheer will to live embedded in every creature's nature, it could have been my exhausted body telling me that I had to either fight then or die while he went on living forever, but I think there was something else; no…I know there was something else: my love for Kagome. I could not live on without her, and I would avenge her death before mine own end. Kagome had been my everything, and worst of all, she had never known it; I had been to stubborn, to suppressed by my own stupidity to let her know how much I dearly loved her.

The battle drew me to finally fall beside her, the stench of Naraku's final stand all around us. I felt my eyes fall closed, and then blackness consumed me.

I don't know how long I remained in a state of unconsciousness. But something woke me, and groggily I forced my eyes open. I was lying in a puddle of the mixed blood of three different beings—Naraku's, Kagome's and my own—Kagome lay next to me, and the scene of her death played through my mind again. Her face was pale, and her eyes looked slightly distant. Then, I heard it: a heartbeat. Not my own…but I heard a heartbeat. I painfully opened my eyes wider, and she blinked. I stared at her for a moment, unbelieving of the miracle that she was still living. Her eyes took on the distant look again and threatened to close.

"Kagome!" I managed to whisper, throwing my entire strength to move my hand to barely brush hers. I could sense death upon her…I didn't want her to leave me. "Kagome…" I choked back blood. I was internally wounded; it seemed as though I could begin to feel the vines of death claw at my very soul, willing it to leave to the spirit realm.

"Inu…" Kagome whispered hoarsely, coughing up a small amount of blood. I wanted so badly to take her into my arms and cradle her, hold her close; I wanted to protect her from death, but I couldn't. The look in her eyes as they slowly readjusted and stared at me with an expression I could not begin to describe wrenched what was left of my battered heart. She knew she was dying, and she wanted so badly to say one last thing to me. At that point, she could have told me to sit ten million times; I didn't care about myself anymore, she was in pain over trying to say it and it tore me up inside.

"Kagome…" was still all I could say myself, and it was not nearly enough.

"H…ai?" she barely whispered, spraying more of her blood onto the both of us.

"I…" my breath was becoming more labored, "love you."

I could see it in her eyes, and instantly I understood her unspoken message. She loved me, my entire soul leaped for joy. Kagome loved me, and I loved her. I managed to slowly nudge my body closer to hers and I brushed my nose against her cheek. We both felt it, and we both stared at each other for a few last seconds before allowing our eyes to slowly close as our hearts beat in unison for the last time.

Suddenly, I was standing above a bloodied battle ground. My senses were…I couldn't explain it, but they weren't the same. I looked down at myself, I was completely without scratch. Then I saw a faint glow materialize before me. My eyes widened in surprise as Kagome threw her arms around me and cried in joy. That was when I noticed the two lifeless bodies beneath us, a seventeen-looking boy with white hair and dog ears and a beautiful black-haired girl, laying beside each other as though they had gone through life having loved each other perfectly every moment. I glanced at the Kagome in my arms, she was smiling brilliantly, and I hugged her into tighter to me. I wanted to tell her something, but the words to describe how I felt to her could not be found.

After what seemed like much too short a time, Kagome took my hand in hers and led me away from the battle ground. We loved each other, and we continued to love each other for the rest of time.

Soon after that we met Kirra, and long after we met Sango and her husband (although I know she has not forgotten her first love, Miroku); Shippo joined just next, and then later his wife. Just recently my half-brother Sesshomaru arrived, and that little runt Rin that followed him along for so long is expected to come later today; Sesshomaru is almost giddy with anticipation of the arrival of his mate. I am happier than I have ever been in all the times that I can remember.

It's funny how life will throw you such surprises. I had never in all my life expected to meet Kagome or go hunting for mere fragments of the Sacred Jewel. I had always expected, after she died, that I would follow Kikyo to hell; it was not until that day that I died that I truly realized that it was not with Kikyo that my love and loyalty belonged. And for all I expected out of my life, I really do suppose Heaven isn't so bad.

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…shrug well, I got bored .;

Also, for those of you reading _Love's Flight, _please refer my bio for the latest information on that… Xx;;; ku…ku…ku…? O=)

Thank you for your time .


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